The Bitter End

And now, the 2016 presidential election . . .

The story so far:  I started out supporting Martin O'Malley for President and was fervently behind him, but he was laughed out of the race after Iowa.  Because I dislike Hillary Clinton so intensely for her sense of entitlement and her ties to big banks and big business, I knew that, if I were to vote in the New Jersey presidential primary at all, I would have to vote for Bernie Sanders.  But he was only my second choice, and I was always ambivalent about him because it looked like it would be difficult if not impossible for him to overtake Hillary in the race and because the Democratic Party would never allow an outsider who wasn't even a Democrat until five o'clock last Tuesday to become its presidential nominee.  Back in May I decided I wouldn't vote in the New Jersey primary.  Than Sanders got some momentum late in the race, and I started having second thoughts about sitting out the New Jersey primary.   Ultimately, though, I did.  I simply wasn't going to forfeit my status as a registered independent to vote in a closed primary for a second choice.  And so, on June 7, Hillary won New Jersey as expected, by 26 points.  But she also won California, a state that was expected to be close, by thirteen points.  How convenient that the Associated Press declared Hillary the presumptive nominee by counting superdelegates - something even the Democratic National Committee objected to - on the eve of primary day!  But now Hillary is definitely the Democratic presidential nominee, and Donald Trump is her Republican opponent, and with plenty of third-party candidates to choose from, I decided I was ready to officially announce here whom I am voting for in November.

Then I found out my choice isn't on the ballot in New Jersey yet.  

However, I can, it turns out, cast a write-in vote for the candidate of my choice.  Not only does New Jersey allow presidential write-in ballots, it is one of eight states that do not require a write-in presidential candidate to register.

So I know whom I'm going to vote for, after all the Sturm und Drang of the past year.  If you know me from Facebook, and if you in fact came here from Facebook, you already know who that is.  The rest of you (including those who came here from Twitter) will find out in a couple of days, though I have mentioned my chosen candidate's name before on this blog.

Meanwhile, there's good news about Martin O'Malley: He retired his campaign debt, so if he should choose to run again, he can start again clean.  But should he choose to run again, he really ought to consider another party, because the Democratic Party is headed for oblivion.  Democrats want nothing to do with him, apparently; the suggestion that he should take over the Democratic National Committee chairmanship from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a woman who so obviously despises him, was shot down almost as soon as it was offered.   Because, you must understand, Martin O'Malley was the Caddyshack candidate of 2016. Some people belonged to the Democratic Party to support Hillary Clinton. Some people belonged to the Democratic Party to support Bernie Sanders. And then there were us O'Malley supporters, who just . . . didn't . . . belong. :-(